Multibeam bathymetric survey and high resolution seismic investigations on the Barbados Ridge complex (Eastern Caribbean): A key to the knowledge and interpretation of an accretionary wedge

Abstract

An important problem of active margin processes is the way accretionary wedges form in response to oceanic crust subduction. New data have been obtained along the Barbados Ridge, in front of the Lesser Antilles Tertiary Island Arc; they include high-resolution multichannel seismic data and accurate SEA BEAM bathymetric maps. Both have been used to propose a 3-dimensional interpretation of tectonic and sedimentary processes related to subduction, such as: oceanic off-scraping, ductile folding, relative uplift and subsidence, fore-arc basin evolution and mud diapirism. They all improved our knowledge of the evolution of accretionary prisms and, more specifically, of the Barbados Ridge development in Plio-Quaternary time. Previous tectonic events are deduced from recently published geological data from Barbados and the Lesser Antilles Islands.